Man dies after trailer filled with fireworks explodes

DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) — Dinwiddie officials are working to figure out what caused a trailer full of fireworks to explode Sunday morning killing a man.

Dinwiddie County Fire and EMS officials said the explosion happened in the 20000 block of Shippings Road just before 10:14 a.m.

Family members have confirmed to CBS 6 the victim is Kelly Leplante.

Fire crews found a single-wide construction trailer with heavy explosive damage on one side. They also found a man in the debris. He’d suffered life-threatening injuries from the blast.

The man was flown to VCU Medical Center where he later died.

Dinwiddie County Fire and EMS, the Dinwiddie Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police are investigating to figure out what caused the explosion.

Dennis Hale, Chief of Fire and EMS in Dinwiddie County, said there is a large quantity of fireworks inside the trailer. They found 18 bags of material that had been ordered online and shipped. They also found the explosive powders that would have lifted the fireworks into the air.

“There was a large quantity of fireworks in that trailer it looks like the subject was trying to make some of his own fireworks,” Hale said.

Hale told CBS 6 reporter Joe St. George in his twenty six years with the Department this is the worst fireworks accident he has seen.

The Leplante Family told CBS 6 he was manufacturing fireworks for the family’s annual Fourth of July Party.

The State Police bomb squad was on the scene assessing the situation. A state police bomb squad transported the materials to a landfill, where they were detonated.

Leplante’s wife and daughter were not injured as they were in the family home at the time of the explosion. The family home sits on the same property near the trailer.